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Vinyl is making a comeback apparently. Yours truly thought it had never disappeared but LP sales are on the rise again and the reason, we are told, is that people have re-discovered the peculiar qualities of music recorded on a grooved, 12″ plastic disc as opposed to a shiny holographic Compact Disc or the overly-compressed MP3 format.

The sound of noise makes a difference and ‘heavy metal’ car manufacturers have known that for years. Lamborghini could never make a car that sang ballads. It is the Motorhead of the car world – raw, raucous and mental. A Lamborghini Lemmy would have been entirely appropriate. TVR was (and hopefully still will be) any thrash metal band you care to mention. Aston Martin (and Jaguar) has adopted a Led Zep Jimmy Page hammer-tone to its latest cars and Ferrari is the Iron Maiden of the same universe since they have been around for so long with their loud, extrovert cars.

When you buy a super-car slash hyper-car you expect it to be loud but when you fire it up you want it to hit you in the chest with an invisible fist that expels the air from your lungs. Literally breath-taking. Many cars can do that these days but back in 2009 Ferrari gave to the world the F430 Scuderia Spider 16M. At first sight it looked like a convertible Scuderia F430 but in reality it turned out to be a member of Judas Priest.

The bark from a 16M is addictive. It is visceral and it will make your ears bleed. Every drive in the car will involve a route that consists of a bunch of tunnels to search for the next fix. Just visit YouTube and type ‘Scuderia 16M’ into the search bar to get an idea of what makes the 16M special. The videos will give you an insight of what to expect from a 16M but you really need to be standing near or sitting in one to appreciate the car properly. It’s all about the noise.

Dinner-party fact: the car was called ’16M’ to commemorate Ferrari’s 16th victory in the Formula 1 Constructor’s World Championship in 2008.

The 4.3 litre V8 engine produces 510 PS (503 hp) and 470 Nm (350 lb·ft) torque at 5250 rpm so 60 mph comes up in a smidgen over 3 seconds and the 16M will max out just shy of 200 mph. The car has a fair share of carbon fibre so it is pretty lightweight and the chassis was stiffened to cope with the extra performance available to make it more track-focused. Lightened front and rear bumpers (compared to the 430 Scuderia) and unique 5-spoke forged wheels were produced for the 16M and helped to considerably reduce unsprung weight with larger front brakes and calipers added for extra stopping power. Enough said.

Other features include a race-tuned suspension, carbon-ceramic brakes, the ‘Superfast2’ automated manual transmission that enables shift changes in 60 milliseconds, LED up-shift markers in the steering wheel plus the now-familiar ‘manettino’ race-mode selector.

Only 499 vehicles in total were produced from early 2009 and all were sold to pre-selected clients. Only 37 were made in right hand drive form which means that if you live in the UK and you like your passenger seated to your left in your 16M you may wait some time before you see your preferred car of choice come on sale.

Which brings us neatly to the 2009 right hand drive example that is being offered on behalf of the current owner.

Finished in Rosso Corsa with Tessuto Nero Tipo Cordura interior this 16M has covered only 7500 miles since new and comes with a comprehensive service history. The most recent service and MOT was carried out by HR Owen Ferrari in October 2015.

Looks aren’t everything so my mother used to tell me. It’s the person inside she said and how right she was too. In the car world however, looks are very important. Subjective maybe, but still important.

The Porsche Panamera springs to mind. I remember walking up to the car for the first test drive and decided that I was going to hate it. The bulbous rear hind-quarters following the flat-nosed front end made it look as though they had stretched a 911 too far on a rack and stuck two doors on each side. The Panamera was not pretty.

But to drive the car was sublime. Great driving position, performance and handling made it very easy to forget the awkward shape of the car being driven. Until you caught a reflection of the Panamera in a large shop window and realised what the rest of the world could see as you bowled merrily along the high street.

Handing the keys back was filled with mixed emotions. What a great car to drive but so hard to fall in love with. I tried hard to forgive the peculiar design but to this day, nine years later, the Panamera has not aged well. Sorry Porsche. Hopefully your forthcoming face-lift for the car this year will transform this ugly duckling.

History is littered with examples of cars that have struggled in the style stakes but have nonetheless been recognised as proper driving machines. One that came up in conversation recently was the BMW Z3M Coupe. Unkindly described by some people as a ‘bread van’, BMW had somehow managed to transform the interesting design of the Z3 roadster into a disfigured hunchback of a coupe. But we loved it and so it seems does everybody else these days with decent examples fetching up to £40k. Who would have guessed that?

Even Ferrari has made a couple of faux-pas in the shape of the Mondial, designed by Pininfarina, and its predecessor the 308/208 GT4 designed by Bertone. Time hasn’t been kind to the Mondial and possibly the Bertone offspring wins by a whisker in this comparison. What about the Testarossa that still looks like it is stuck in the 80’s with those exaggerated side-intakes and the 456 which was probably the most bland design ever to come from Maranello?

But all it takes is the arrival of a superstar in the company’s line-up and all those previous mishaps are forgotten. Enter the F12berlinetta in 2012.

With a mix of dramatic curves and the odd aggressive sharp crease in the right place Ferrari created a car you could stare at all day. You could buy it and never drive it because you wanted to make sure you had taken in every inch of the beautiful shape and then go back and check it all over again.

But drive it you must. Before the LaFerrari arrived it was the fastest production car out of Maranello. The figures speak for themselves: 6.2 litre V12 producing 740hp. 0-60 mph in less than 3 seconds. 0-120 mph in 8.5 seconds. Maximum speed 211 mph. The F12 is a seriously fast car and only the F12tdf will come between this and the LaFerrari when it is launched this year.

However, it is not just about the looks and the performance figures but it is also the aural sensation of the way it goes about its business. The engine note is akin to that heard in a Formula One race car. A kind of mid-range bark that turns into a screaming wail at high revs and then crackles loudly on the fast down-shifts. Delicious.

So there it is. Is the F12berlinetta the perfectly packaged sports car with the looks, the performance and the noise to go with it? We think it comes close and has certainly set a very high bar for all newcomers. Maybe only Ferrari itself can eclipse its own accomplishments but we shall find out in the fullness of time no doubt.

For anybody now thinking of purchasing an F12berlinetta we can tell you about a car that will be coming onto the market in a couple of weeks from now – let’s say early February.

Finished in Rosso Corsa with Cuoio Hide Interior this right hand drive, April 2013 registered F12 has recorded 800 miles and comes with the following options in addition to the standard specification:-